Some adherents of the growing Christian movement have begun to spiritualize Christ by denying his real humanity.

Docetist teachings concerning the person of Christ, based on a Hellenistic dualism that maintains that the material world is either unreal or positively evil, emerge in the later first century CE.

According to Docetism, the eternal Son of God did not really become human or suffer on the cross; he only appeared to do so.

Docetism is most commonly attributed to the Gnostics, many of whom believe that matter is evil, and as a result God would not take on a material body.

This statement is rooted in the idea that a divine spark is imprisoned within the material body, and that the material body is in itself an obstacle, deliberately created by an evil, lesser god (the demiurge) to prevent man from seeing his divine origin.

Docetism can be further explained as the view that since the human body is temporary and the spirit is eternal, the body of Jesus must have been an illusion and, likewise, his crucifixion.

Even so, saying that the human body is temporary has a tendency to undercut the importance of the belief in resurrection of the dead and the goodness of created matter, and is in opposition to this orthodox view.

Docetism is an aberrant form of early Christianity, developing around 50 CE, which is most prominently espoused by Gnostic sects.

Its origin within Christianity is obscure and it has been argued that its origins were in heterodox Judaism or Oriental and Grecian philosophies.

Some of the books of the New Testament condemn docetic teachings and the early creeds developed to counter docetic beliefs.

First-century Gnostic Christian groups develop docetic interpretations partly as a way to make Christian teachings more acceptable to pagan ways of thinking of divinity.

The Epistles of John (traditionally ascribed to John the Apostle), probably written in the Roman province of Asia (western Anatolia) toward the end of the first century CE or the beginning of the second, are addressed to a general readership rather than to specified churches or individuals.

These "Johannine Epistles" address the problem of Docetism several times.

The first epistle, written in Ephesus between the years 95–110, bears no indication of its authorship; the author of the second and third epistles styles himself "the elder."

The first, written to churches in Anatolia, conveys a series of standard tests by which people can know that they possess eternal life.

By the test of love, the true follower of Christ loves as Jesus loved.

The test of belief in the incarnation—that the eternal son of God, the second person of the Trinity, became man in the person of Jesus Christ—is meant to counter those, such as the Docetists, who claim special knowledge and deny that Christ came in the flesh.

The second epistle, a short note addressing the church as the "elect lady," cautions a local congregation against teachers claiming special knowledge and encourages members to be hospitable to one another.

The third epistle also brief, encourages Gaius, a follower of the truth, to display kindness to the traveling faithful who pass his way.